Boats For Sale:
Gunwale reinforcement |
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nobrainsd 
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Joined: August-13-2015 Location: San Diego Status: Offline Points: 157 |
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 Topic: Gunwale reinforcementPosted: April-03-2021 at 11:26am |
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I have a 94 Ski Nautique. Probably considered sacrilege on CCF, but it has a FCT2 Tower on it. Has held up well to the weight of two hydrofoils and their accompanying racks. But the tower does flex around in rough water. I have noticed that the gunwales deform a bit under load. The gunwales are just open underneath with no reinforcement between the inner wall and the hull. There are a few spider cracks around the tower mounts, but I have not seen anything new. Looks to be from hitting the tower on an obstruction by the PO. I had to rack the tower itself a little bit on purchase to get it to easily fold back into proper position.
Now I have obtained a Fly High tower extension cheap. Clearly an abomination on the Ski Nautique :) But I don't need a wake when hydrofoiling and my skiers like the ride. I am concerned that I will over flex the gunwales. The tower mounts are reinforced with aluminum plates, but I am considering reinforcing the gunwales with some ribs. Install some flat glassed pieces of plywood on the hull side and inner gunwale side with glassed plywood ribs connecting the two. Should make the gunwale much stronger and reduce the flex. Any suggestions or comments? I figure there will be some flames regarding the Nautique abuse or why don't I buy some huge wake machine. But that isn't going to happen and I do ride once or twice a week year round so I do have a superior attitude anyways :) I hope everyone has a sense of humor! An extra 5 feet of tower height. What could go wrong? I can always take it off...   |
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nobrainsd
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Joined: August-13-2015 Location: San Diego Status: Offline Points: 157 |
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Posted: April-03-2021 at 11:50am |
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If for nothing else the Fly High makes a great place to fly your flag...
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KENO
Grand Poobah 
Joined: June-06-2004 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 11184 |
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Posted: April-03-2021 at 8:09pm |
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NBSD
I didn't want you to feel totally ignored and neglected so I figured I'd write something here I think I like your reinforcement plan. You didn't mention the T word, so you obviously didn't stir people up.(or it's really slow around here) Can you imagine the lift you'd get with one of them flying tubes.
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nobrainsd
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Joined: August-13-2015 Location: San Diego Status: Offline Points: 157 |
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Posted: April-03-2021 at 10:20pm |
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Thank you for the support Senor K. I hear the extension is good for a few more frames when jumping and is a softer landing on inverted tricks. Old guys need anything they can get. I will post how it goes. Super happy with my new prop, shaft, strut and motor mounts too. Grazing the gravel at Havasu was not good.Without ccf I would be struggling with my closed cooling system, my protec ignition. aligning my coupling, installing perfect pass and just dealing with boat life. CCF is all that for sure. Thank you all as I launch again.
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Hollywood
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Joined: February-04-2004 Location: Twin Lakes, WI Status: Offline Points: 13521 |
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Posted: April-04-2021 at 10:02am |
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Practically anything you do will help and nothing you mentioned seemed counter productive.
Upside down fiberglassing... sounds fun. |
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nobrainsd
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Joined: August-13-2015 Location: San Diego Status: Offline Points: 157 |
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Posted: April-04-2021 at 11:44am |
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I do have epoxy and fumed silica to thicken it, but prefer to spend a little more and use GFlex from West Marine. It comes in a consistency that is like thick honey and is really sticky, but will wet down fiberglass fairly easily. Worked great when I fixed my muffler in place the first time. But I do wonder if I should use 4200 to bond to the hull. Seems a bit of flexibility would be a good thing and most of the stress will be in compression. So maybe epoxy sealed plywood pieces, GFlex glassed joints and 4200 bonding to the hull.
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